Astro Avenger

In the year 2375, humanity is finally at peace after the Empire has conquered five galaxies. However all not all adapted well to the end of wars... and many ex-military officers formed into pirate groups, including one Jake Stone. Jake soon ruled over the planet and made every attempt to avoid notice and conceal the pirate's numbers and resources from knowledge. As the years passed the pirates waited for their opportunity which finally came when the Empire finally launched a war against a sixth galaxy. With the bulk of the military focused, Jake Stone assaulted the core planets and dethroned the Emperor. Jake then put each galaxy under the command of one of his top lieutenants. The only hope lies in the battle fleet far away in the 6th galaxy, who must be alerted to the events which have occurred.

Astro Avenger is a vertically scrolling space shooter, somewhat graphically similar to 3D AirStrike. Players control Jake Stone and his single fighter as waves of enemy spaceships attack from the top of the screen. Jake can move left and right on the screen and has a primary fire and a secondary fire weapon. Depending on the weapon being used, it may drain energy from the player's energy bar, which is automatically replenished at a fixed rate. Enemies that are destroyed increase both the player's points and money values. At the end of each stage, the player visits the shop where they can spend the money accumulated on weapons, armor and batteries for the ship. Enemies each have their own health bars, with larger ships typically requiring more firepower to destroy than smaller ones. The return fire from enemies as well as running into obstacles can damage the player's armor value on his ship. This is displayed both as an overall "health meter", where the player's ship is destroyed when it is depleted, and as a more specific damage indicator showing specific areas of the ship affected by damage (such as movement, firing rate, recharge rate...). Enemy ships occasionally drop power-ups which may restore life, grant temporary invulnerability, restore missiles, fix damaged systems or grant bonus money.